Ready to Rumble

September 22, 2017

A Salute to the Volunteers

Last night, 300 of our state’s most committed and hardworking political volunteers gathered at the Omaha Hilton to mark the NEGOP’s Founders’ Day — an annual tribute to the party faithful who do the yeoman’s work knocking on doors, walking in parades, and making phone calls for candidates they believe in.

These Nebraskans are some of our best. They embody the kind of civic engagement and respectful participation in the democratic process we need more of around the country.

Governor Pete Ricketts brought his buddy and fellow businessman-turned-governor of Arizona Doug Ducey as the keynote. Ducey did a nice job walking through Nebraska’s many successes and recounted his own disbelief on Election Day 2016 when Donald Trump turned the political world on its head. Ducey was affable, self effacing, and ended with a call to grow the party. Can I get an Amen?

It was a gathering of Nebraska political heavyweights. There was a lot of love in the room for Senator Deb Fischer as she reminded us of her deep love for Nebraska while introducing Governor Pete Ricketts. Don Bacon and his indefatigable enthusiasm were both present and accounted for, as was the ever congenial Adrian Smith, Jeff Fortenberry, Jean Stothert, Rita Sanders, Aimee Melton, and many, many other electeds who had gathered to say thank you to the men and women whose blood, sweat, and tears give them the chance to govern.

Ben Sasse was not there, but had a letter read. Many in the room were hoping to hear from him on the upcoming healthcare bill, but alas his schedule required him to be elsewhere. Rumor has it he was in Cali with donors – surf’s up!

The energy and organization of the NEGOP was on full display last night. With marquee races for the Governor, US Senate, 3 House seats, all of the constitutional offices, and 24 seats in the legislature, Nebraska Republicans are ready to get to work, and make no mistake, they are ready to rumble.

Kleeb on the Ropes

It’s also worth noting that the Nebraska Dems still can’t land candidates to enter most of the statewide races — most glaringly, the race for GOVERNOR. And oddly, the NDP twitter account is shilling for independent candidate Bob Krist. Weird, right? Do they realize Krist will also be looking to take down their future standard bearer, if they can find one? Or has Kleeb just given up?

I hear she is considering a bid herself, but presumably she is shrewd enough to know she is too extreme to ever win a statewide race. A loss would tarnish her brand, so my guess is she stays on the sidelines. Safer that way.

Not sure Jane Kleeb can claim to lead a credible statewide party without a candidate for governor. Conversations with traditional Democrat party stalwarts in both Lincoln and Omaha over recent weeks continue to lay bare the mistrust and skepticism with which Kleeb is viewed. Her extreme views on issues from abortion to Keystone and her disregard for hardworking union members have pushed many old school Democrats out.

Bernie’s Back in NE Politics

Did anyone else catch that the NDP Twitter account endorsed Bernie Sanders’ single-payer government run healthcare scheme? Quite a statement for the state party.

Serious question: Was that party position discussed at a committee meeting or just trigger happy Jane going on gut? My bet’s on the latter, but please enlighten me if this was debated and agreed upon by the state party.

Kara Eastman, who is eager to pass any litmus test the left can throw her way, was quick to get in formation and support Bernie. Brad Ashford is still polling, no doubt, but made some incoherent rumination expressing concern on it. And not a peep from the Nebraska Democrat Senate candidate, Jane Raybould. Surprise, surprise.

Anyone who is unsure of a position on this should call Heath Mello and ask him how Bernie’s magic worked out for him. I hear has a lot of time on his hands.

81 comments

Ricketts is running a Christian fundamentalist preacher against Laura Ebke, our only libertarian state representative. The GOP can’t do this and expect votes from libertarians. That might matter in a close race.

Oh good grief. See what you started Anonymous @ 12:56pm yesterday? Gerard qualified ‘fundamentalist’ yet you dropped the qualifier and made the erroneous comparison of Christian vs. Libertarian. And then…at 1:06 and 1:30 respectively, Gerard reinserted his qualifier and you again dropped the qualifier. From there the dialogue devolved into Jim and Tammy Faye followed by inept bynd who apparently now believes what you, Anonymous, erroneously declared yesterday @ 12:56 when you failed to include the qualifier! I plead not on behalf of Gerard as I don’t like the persona he has previously established here. Rather, I plead for rational dialogue!!!

NotTA: You should review what you wrote. I did set the “example” and one I have set regularly for many years here at LeavenworthSt. That being, express yourself without resorting to insult and/or vulgarity. And see, I just did so, again!

Irrefutable:
– Nearly 20,000,000 Americans gained insurance and access to care via the ACA.
– Never in America’s history have so many had access to care, so few left behind.
– The ACA has permanently changed, for the better, the delivery of healthcare in America.
– The ACA has begun to pare back the ever-escalating cost curve of health care.

Had not the Republicants spent the last 8 years mindlessly sabotaging the law, solely for personal political gain, a great number of improvements would have been implemented to enhance in myriad ways this highly complex undertaking.
Were it not for Republicant intransigence, care would be right now be improved, costs would be curtailed, inefficiencies eliminated and the price of procedures and services would have been much more aggressively addressed.

Industry experts have determined that the uncertainty brought about the Republicans latest round of inept, asinine, seemingly clueless (after only 7 years to deliberate) attempts to dismantle the ACA, have lead to premium price increases this year ranging between 15 and 20%.
Struggling Americans facing premiums 20% higher, solely due to wholesale Republican incompetence.

D.Shawn is about as crazy as that pot nut bag Ellsworth. No clue on the AD job going to Joni. Do not know if she has the qualifications. They might also require her to work more than 5 hours a month which might be a problem.

Doc@@:51 says: “Nearly 20,000,000 Americans gained insurance and access to care via the ACA.” and follows with: “Industry experts have determined that the uncertainty brought about the Republicans latest round of inept, asinine, seemingly clueless (after only 7 years to deliberate) attempts to dismantle the ACA, have lead to premium price increases this year ranging between 15 and 20%. Struggling Americans facing premiums 20% higher, solely due to wholesale Republican incompetence.”

Is it possible that the increase in premium prices of 15 to 20% THIS year (following the previous years’ increases of 55% and more) are BECAUSE 20,000,000 Americans gained access at the expense of millions of other Americans who USED to have good coverage (and health plans and doctors whom they were promised they could keep, but lost under ACA)?

From the start, ACA was unsustainable EXCEPT by massive premium increases AND massive government infusions to the insurance companies — that was all part of the deal! Everybody knew it when they passed it, and everybody who supported it pretended that it would reduce the cost of premiums (I recall that Obama said “up to $2500”) and not cost taxpayers anything — except more national debt!

Professor, you may be academically smart but you behave like a political buffoon.

You irrationally offer opinions on things you say you ignore. You explain beliefs you don’t believe in and refuse to look at. Your latest is that you think Republicans need Libertarian votes. You say the GOP cannot disrespect Libertarian Ebke and “expect votes from libertarians… THAT MIGHT MATTER IN A CLOSE RACE.” You then explain what Christians think of fundamentalists and you are neither. You speak of gay rights and you aren’t gay. You speak of morality which you reject in favor of atheist ethics. (Which I don’t dispute or disagree with.) And you who hate Trump beyond reason, you who refuse to put yourself in the shoes of his supporters, you yet magically know why people voted for him. Basically, you sound like an uneducated silly boob. To be sure, some who argue against you here can appear equally boobish but they don’t brag about being a professor. You do.

It is impossible to argue points of reason with a PhD who pulls down his chemical pants to wiggle his tiny political wherewithal publicly, so allow us to simply show a few facts.

Don’t watch a lot of football, but I’m going to turn it on at 3 p.m. to see the third round of #taketheknee. Trump is certainly a unifier; he took a small protest and made it viral, so that entire teams (like the Ravens this morning) came together to defy his autocratic little ass. My God, I’ve even decided I like LeBron James, for today, though I expect I’ll go back to detesting him in 24 hours.

One would think that GH, having lived under a both a monarchy and a democratic republic, would find irony in the fact that the Ravens and Jaguars chose to kneel during the U.S. national anthem, but chose to stand for ‘God Save our Queen’.

Indeed, were it not for the freedom won through the Revolutionary War…the fight that inspired our national anthem…the freedoms we all know and love wouldn’t exist, and the choice to either kneel or stand wouldn’t actually be a choice.

But I do agree that Trump, once again through his endless verbal diarrhea, managed to turn an isolated fringe protest into a cas de guerre. He doesn’t know when to shut up because he doesn’t know how to shut up.

I have no idea who you are, posting under the moniker that most on here do. Name one time I used vulgarity not in reply to another posters using of same first.

Calling names, if this is TA you’re just a rude, pompous ass who likes to initiate posts with others who have not posted to you, and then when they respond, you cry and whine like a little baby.

Here let me give you some common sense, adult rules. If you don’t like the post don’t read it. If you don’t like the poster, don’t post to them. If you need, I can get a fifth grader to explain these simple concepts to you.

And since you think you are so much purer than others, maybe it’s time to go to the religion boards, where your kind can compare who is the most holy.

And quite frankly, a poster from Texas on this site is by definition, a Troll. Yes your poop stinks also, but not to you because your head is above it behind your rib cage.

Why would one go to a religious board what with all the “Christians” who post here, like you, bynd?
And anyone who posts anything here is posting to everyone here. By the way, you’re making the anti-Christians look better and better all the time.

Why would one go to a religious board what with all the “Christians” who post here

I don’t understand where you missed the part where I suggested they should go join the other holier than thou folks.

“By the way, you’re making the anti-Christians look better and better all the time.”
Since some of you on here seen to object to only one person doing something that all do, all I can say is, with discernment like that, there would be nothing I could say that would make you think different. It always is/was your choice. If you make it based on one person, that would be your flaw and your mistake. Do you want to make a decision about eternity based on me? Wow, I have more influence than I thought.

Holier than thou? Your the one person who takes that stand when you claim to be above the left and the right. Your the one with all the insults and name calling as though you can look into the heart of everyone else. Your the foolish “Christian” bynd. It’s not everyone else. It’s you!

NEGOP’s underhanded treachery was exposed (again) in an AP article recently appearing in the Lincoln Journal Star.
An article titled: “Nebraska sets highest bar in US for independent candidates”

From the article:
“A Nebraska law approved last year with no debate has set the nation’s highest bar for independent candidates to qualify for statewide races such as governor and U.S. Senate, contradicting the state’s history of downplaying partisan politics.

Critics said the measure was quietly inserted into an omnibus elections law to maintain the Republican party stranglehold on every statewide office.”

Obviously this was done as a preemptive political strike against Bob Krist.
It was John Murante who surreptitiously slipped the provision into an omnibus bill late in a jam-packed, confrontational, chaotic legislative session.
A provision that raises the number of signatures needed for an Independent run at office from 4000 – to roughly 119,000.
No other state in America has such a ridiculously onerous requirement.
Professional election experts have called the law “plainly unconstitutional”.

Imagine if the NEGOP spent just half the time, working for the benefit of Nebraskans, rather than the perpetual plotting and scheming on behalf of personal interests, (moneyed) special interests and party gain in the next election cycle.

Bob Krist could have run as republican or democrat, he knows what the score is. Party wouldn’t have made a dam bit of difference, pick a battle for someone who is worth the fight who would get enough support anyway, that blowhard isn’t relevant.

It seems like the solution is easy. Bob Krist can just follow his heart and run as a Democrat. Kleeb is already stumping for him, so I think it’s safe to say he’ll be welcomed. And with political ideas so, ummm…flexible, he’ll fit in over there in no time.

That’s just one of the eye-opening, jaw-dropping findings in a stunning new survey conducted by John Villasenor, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a public policy professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.

The survey in late August of 1,500 undergraduate students at four-year colleges found that 51 percent thought it was just fine for a student group to loudly and repeatedly disrupt a “very controversial speaker” who is “known for making offensive and hurtful statements” so the audience cannot hear him or her.

And 19 percent thought it was OK to use violence to shut down an offensive speaker. You will recognize those scenarios if you’ve paid much attention to what’s been happening on campuses like Yale, Berkeley, Middlebury and Claremont McKenna, among others, in recent years.

Indeed, my conservative critics may be tickled to hear that I, too, received a taste of this bitter medicine at the University of North Carolina last year, where the Black Student Union disrupted and delayed the town hall on race relations that I was leading in order to read off a list of grievances and demands.

I was only annoyed that, after reading their demands, they ignored my invitation to stick around and talk about their issues. Their leaders were more interested in holding a news conference outside.

But there’s more. Villasenor’s survey reveals that 40 percent of students said the First Amendment doesn’t protect hate speech.

And a Pew Research Center survey two years ago found today’s millennials are “far more likely” than older generations to say the government should be able to prevent people from saying offensive statements about minority groups.

I must say, progressives have a pretty effective indoctrination system going.

Yes, these are selective cut and paste in the grand tradition of Lstreet liberals. I’ve learned:)

But as Nancy found out, it can come back to bite you in the butt. “all or none.” “liar, liar”. Now what will she do?

We should apply these standards to those of her followers who post here.

In addition to exploiting on twitter the image a soldier in full dress, with two prosthetic legs, the colossal moron we call Donald Trump just had the audacity to crassly exploit/retweet the image of – Pat Tillman – in his crusade to convince his yokel legions to boycott the NFL.

Do you think the ever incurious half-wit Donald Trump is even aware that Tillman was killed by 3 bullets from a machine gun wielded by a fellow American solider? Bullets that passed through Tillman’s head as he was screaming “I’m f—ing PAT TILLMAN!”, hoping his his fellow squad mates would stop shooting?
A friendly fire incident that the United States military, under the Command of G.W. Bush, would try desperately to hide as they blatantly lied to the Tillman family and the American people.
A Pat Tillman that came to call the Iraq war illegal, who quickly grew to hate the President of the United States (G.W.) and was eager to return home to meet with noted leftist and supporter of the Occupy Movement, Noam Chomsky.

This is same Donald Trump who received not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE draft deferments all of them throughout the very height of the Vietnam war.
The same Donald Trump who would later yuck it up with Howard Stern, relaying how avoiding STDs during his club-hopping days in NYC was his own ‘personal Vietnam’.

The same Donald Trump who spent the weekend on twitter, once again disparaging an American hero, John McCain, who right now is in a literal fight for his life.

The same Donald Trump who this summer repeatedly attacked a Gold Star family.

The same Donald Trump who only hours earlier tweeted out the threat to commit American forces to wiping millions of innocent people from the face of the earth:@realDonaldTrump Sep 23
Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!

Hundreds of overpaid football players just disrespected all of the gold Star families. Not to mention all of the little people who pay their wages while standing for their flag in the stadium while the spoiled brats acted like children. Protest without personal sacrifice is worthless and shallow. Especially when they make it from the sweat of the brow of the other 99%.

That’s a load of crap bynd. Kneeling football players have nothing to do with grieving parents nor game day enthusiasts paying football players wages. Your confusing your desire for war with actual military defense and they are not the same. If we didn’t have so many war mongers like you we could focus on just defending and not so much needless killing.

We aren’t talking about war. What a stupid statement. And the people less likely to want war are those who served. Especially those who served during such actions, declared war or not.

So as one who avoided military service, maybe you should stop posting about things you absolutely no idea about. Especially since what you post is degrading and disrespectful to those who you use for your political purposes.

The fact that you use Trump’s actions to justify your even more deplorable actions shows what a degenerate you are. No personal principles except if Trump does it, you can do it.

As I have already pointed out numerous times, you are no different than what you believe Trump is.

Professor, you reacted to my post with three of your own in a row. That seems agitated. As I said, I don’t disagree with you on many of your positions. And ordinarily I’d not mention any of this and instead leave your consecutive posts to speak for themselves. However, you asked me a direct question. “Tell me one instance where I’ve boasted about being a professor.”

Well, RIGHT WING PROFESSOR, you have us there. At what point in the past decade might you have highlighted the fact that you are a professor? Perhaps every day as you as crammed your professorship into your penname. We don’t mind. People’s pennames tell us about them. Your real name tells us about what your parents preferred. RWP is iconic. Descriptive. Classy.

Do you have tenure yet? If not, you are rather stuck like NFL players who are also experts in their own field which is also physically real and dangerous, unlike politics which avoids risk and consequence. Political elites have for the past 50 years threatened every black player who tries to be patriotic, to instead display hatred of the USA, else they be condemned as race traitors in black communities, while white owners who dare not abide by the mantra are condemned as “Klan” and, like players who don’t abide, find their careers and lives ruined. The same socialists do this to conservative professors, as you and Sen. Sasse have often pointed out. And rightly so. We understand you hate Trump. But you may not wish to completely cut off your nose to spite his ruddy face. Many socialists would have voted for Obama had he eaten a black child on television. Certainty has its drawbacks. Sure, one needs tenure and asses need kissing. None escape that. But the overall point stands, be skeptical of unexamined certainties lest one miss unobvious opportunities.

Do you think the ever incurious half-wit Donald Trump is even aware that Tillman was killed by 3 bullets from a machine gun wielded by a fellow American solider? Bullets that passed through Tillman’s head as he was screaming “I’m f—ing PAT TILLMAN!”, hoping his his fellow squad mates would stop shooting?

With a post like that from someone who has never served, you are no different than Trump and as the scumbag you are, you actually make him look good.

As it is consistently and easy to point out, you are no different than Trump in any way. Go back into your hole Wormwood.

Only a true half-wit would engage in, or condone, the exploitation of Pat Tillman’s death by suggesting he would find offensive the act of athletes kneeling in protest of inequality and injustice in America.

Only someone wholly ignorant of who Pat Tillman was, what he came to stand for and the torment his loved ones were forced to endure, would find your position anything less than repulsive.

I havent heard much about Krystal Gabel for Governor on here, but I see her signs everywhere. I read her platform and she wants to produce new economy by adding hemp as a crop. She wants to create many products out of hemp like toilet paper and bio diesel. She has my votes and all the other GOP voters that I have spoken too. It’s funny how you never mention her.

The nation’s top military officer, Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, just chose to defy the current Clownmander-In-Chief, by stating unequivocally before the Senate Armed Services Committee that transgenders should absolutely continue to serve in the military.

Gen. Dunford opinion is one shared by the leader of the United States Department of Defense, Marine Gen. and Sec Def James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis.

This clearly calls into question the motivation behind this wholly fabricated bit of horseshit from the duly elected yet mentally challenged Lyin’ King –
@realDonaldTrump
After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……
7:55 AM – Jul 26, 2017

….Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming…..
8:04 AM – Jul 26, 2017

….victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you
8:08 AM – Jul 26, 2017

Serial liar Donald Trump clearly consulted with no one.
What were he and Bannon up to with this tweet? Why the need for this harmful, highly divisive distraction?
Is he simply playing politics and whipping up his legion of knuckle-draggers at the expense of soldiers serving our nation, or is there something more devious afoot?

But gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy DO have significant medical costs…why should the taxpayers be on the hook for those costs? If a budding fighter pilot decides he wants to look like Val Kilmer as ‘Iceman’, should the taxpayers be required to pay for his cosmetic surgery, as well? HGH would obviously help many of our soldiers heal faster and perform at a higher level…so should we pay to put our armed forces on HGH ‘therapy’ if they request it?

As a country, we apparently lack the money or political will (or both) to properly treat those who already have served their country, and have suffered both physical and psychological wounds in the process. Seems a bit idiotic to add more expenses to an already existing problem.

So you’re saying that surgeries to reassign genitals are cheap? The average cost of a total knee replacement in the U.S. is around $50k…and that’s just to fix something that was already there to begin with.

A Time Magazine article from a couple years back indicated that costs for gender reassignment can go well over $100k. I believe that such money is better spent elsewhere…like caring for already injured and disabled vets.

The numbers are out there.
We know (roughly) how much medical services to the transgender community cost.

Why do choose to ignore the underlying numbers?

Medical cost for all transgender troops serving their country amounts to less than 0.14% of the military’s medical budget. It’s so insignificant as to not qualify as a rounding error in their overall budget of $700 billion a year.

Trump’s weekend jaunts to Mar-a-Lago in the first few months of his presidency have cost many times the total medical costs for a year for every transgender troop currently serving.

Sure, everybody wants to care for injured vets. And children, and puppies and bunnies.
But if you truly want to save money to direct to that cause, why not start by eliminating boner pills.
The U.S. military spends $84 million/year on pecker pills.
$294 million since 2011.

The cost for the Secret Service to protect Trump’s coddled kids when they go on vacation in Aspen, or the Swiss Alps, or Bali, or when they go big game hunting in Africa or Tunisia, will dwarf what it costs to provide medical care for transgender troops serving our nation.